The Fault in our Left 4 Dead
by ellis4zoey
Summary: Zoey/Ellis fanboy trying to make a spin on the Fault in our Stars, but set in a Left 4 Dead post-zombie-apocalypse setting. I neither own Left 4 Dead nor the Fault in our Stars, and don't pretend to be a great writer. But someone might well be interested to know what happens at the end of John Green's magnificent book. I'll probably get hopelessly lost as usual :-)


Here I was, sitting on a couch, in a house, in Savannah, next to him. We had only just gotten here this day. We had survived. The zombie apocalypse was over, what was left of humankind had to start over. And I was sitting next to him.

I knew him for several months now, we had met on a bridge, it turned out to have been the middle of the zombie apocalypse. My survivor group started out with four. Sometimes we were five, then four again. Then three. And then he showed up, with three others.

The seven of us fought through seemingly endless hordes of zombies. Seven became six, then the two of us were separated from the rest. We were attacked, I was badly wounded. I had begged him to leave me behind, grievously wounded as I had been. I had wished for release. When I woke up in the hospital I immediately realized he had saved me. Literally.

We sat awkwardly next to eachother, on the aforementioned couch. His mother, who had also survived, though in a separate group, had already gone to bed. He turned to me and began a conversation. I remembered when he told me his name was Ellis. And how he had kept me warm during the cold nights in various safehouses.

Ellis: "I guess there's much we need to talk about, I would love to learn some more about you".

Me: "I told you most of it already, college, parents divorced, then zombies and..."

He didn't let me finish my sentence.

Ellis: "That's your zombie apocalypse story, you told me already. But I wanna know more about your story. The stuff you like, movies you've watched, your favorite color and all that. Who you are behind the facade of the college girl who'se good at shooting pistols and killing zombies."

I looked at him. His goofy grin betraying some of the feelings he'd already confessed he had for me. And yes he was handsome. Twenty-three years of age, four years my senior. I kept asking myself why I was here with him. Maybe deep down I already knew the answer, I just didn't realize it yet.

Me: "What do you want to know? I like movies, well I did like them, but mostly action movies. And video games, first-person-shooters."

Ellis: "Any movie you would recommend?"

Me: "I liked Alien, and anything by George Romero, though maybe not anymore, considering what happened and all that, I don't think I'll ever watch a zombie movie ever again."

We were sitting only a few inches away from eachother, yet he had found the room to put his hand on the couch between us, hoping perhaps I would grasp it. I wanted to, but I didn't, why not I didn't know.

Ellis: "Me neither, not that I ever watched them, mom always preferred I play outside rather than sitting behind the TV or playing computer games. Anyway, me and my buddy Keith were usually outside."

Me: "Do you have a favorite book?"

Ellis: "I never really read a lot of, well there is this one book I liked."

Me: "Tell me."

Ellis: "I must have read it a dozen times already, it's the authorized autobiography of none other than JIMMY GIBBS JUNIOR himself".

I searched my memory if I had ever heard of this Jimmy Gibbs junior, but came up blank.

Me: "Who's Jimmy Gibbs?"

Ellis: "You mean to tell you've never heard of Jimmy Gibbs junior? Jimmy Gibbs junior is the MAN! I don't know anyone like him, the greatest stock car driver of all time, of ALL TIME I say."

Me: "Okay, sorry, I didn't follow stock car racing at all".

Ellis: "Saying that Jimmy Gibbs junior is famous around here is like saying you are the purdiest girl I ever met, I mean it is totally true and then some."

I blushed, even though by now I was used to his ceaseless complements. I never thought of myself as pretty, or 'purdy' as Ellis always said, but I could see in his eyes that he meant it. His beautiful baby blue eyes.

Me: "Okay, I will read this book about Jimmy Gibbs, the greatest stock car driver that ever lived".

Ellis: "You can have my copy, I mean the one signed by the man himself."

So there I was, promising to read a book about someone I never heard of, it being the favorite book of a young man I barely knew. That was the consequence of fighting through the zombie apocalypse side by side with a handsome young man. A young man who had fallen in love with me and asked me to stay with him when it was all over. An offer I accepted because I literally had nowhere else to go. Or maybe I had another reason.

Me: "How many pages is it anyway?"

Ellis: "Hundreds, and every one of them more interesting than anything else I ever read. You'll even find out about his favorite colors and stuff".

Me: "Okay, I'm really looking forward to it".

I wasn't sure I meant that.

Ellis: "You tell me what your favorite book is, so we can then read eachother's".

Me: "You wouldn't like it.

Ellis: "How can I know if I didn't read it".

Me: "It's kind of a tragic love story".

Ellis: "I'll read it".

And he meant it. I was kind of embarrassed because my favorite book was so out of character for me. I had never really liked fluffy romance things, action games and movies being more my thing. But once my friend Fiona introduced me to this book, I read it and I loved it. I read it over and over again, and even spend a lot of my free time thinking about it. Ellis seemed pretty insistent so I thought what the heck, why not?

Me: "He's really a wonderful author, and from what I know about him a really nice man. He's one of the few people I've actually always wanted to meet".

Ellis: "What is this book called?"

Me: "The fault in our stars, by John Green".

Ellis: "I'll find a copy and read this tragic love story, and then I'll tell you what I think about it".

From what I knew about Ellis he was more of the romantic type than I was, so maybe he would like it. But would he have the patience to read it? It wasn't about stock car drivers, after all. I was getting tired.

Me: "We should go to bed".

Ellis: "Yeah, you can sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the couch."

Me: "No you won't, its quite cold and I need you to keep me warm, and as my fiancé that is part of your job now".

Ellis just blushed, remembering that he'd blurted out _the question_. I had woken up from my coma in the hospital, he was there, and he had wasted no time. And that was why I was here. I had said _yes_. So here we were, still on the couch, about to go upstairs, to spend our first night together in his bed. A real bed, not a mattrass or bunk like in all those safe rooms.

I wondered how it would feel, though one thing I already knew. It would be warm. And the feminist in me had given up trying to resist the young woman in me that so craved this warmth. It was a special warmth, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Though awkward it was, still, both for me as well as for him.

But above all I wondered if Ellis would like my favorite book. I looked outside for a brief moment before we closed the curtains, the stars were very bright. There was no fault in them, not this night.


End file.
